Ark of Truth Missing Scene
by whisper99
Summary: Here's a missing scene from Ark of Truth. It more or less takes place between the time that Daniel, Vala & Tomin are captured and around the time the Doci/Priors come to torture them when they are in their cells.


Daniel and Vala gave each other one last pain-filled look before they turned their full attention to the oncoming Ori soldiers.

Tomin stayed hidden behind the fallen trunk, desperately clutching the rock in his hands. He knew more than anyone what fate would befall them if they were captured.

Teal'c lay where he had fallen, completely still.

Daniel fired at the advancing soldiers although he knew it was futile. He couldn't possibly lay down enough cover for Vala or Tomin to pull Teal'c out of harm's way. Instead he turned his attention back to the oncoming army and caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye. He spun toward the movement and brought his weapon to bear on the threat at hand, but it was too late. The end of the staff caught him in the face and he fell back, landing hard on the ground.

Vala saw Daniel go down and raised her weapon to fire but hesitated when she saw that the Ori soldier had his weapon pressed against Daniel's neck.

"We surrender!" Tomin cried out from his hiding place. Though he knew the horrors that awaited them in Ori hands, they had no choice now aside from death. Perhaps he could convince some others to help them. - So long as they lived, there was hope. Tomin had to believe that. Perhaps he would be able to make contact with his men. Perhaps he would find that he still had allies among them. "Vala, please, put your weapon down."

Vala lowered her weapon slowly. She exchanged a glance with Daniel who was still being pinned to the ground by the soldier. He flicked his gaze toward Teal'c and Vala nodded her understanding.

"Please, my friend has been injured," she said to the soldier. "May I go to him?" She raised her hand and gestured toward Teal'c's prone body.

The soldiers didn't lower their weapons; if anything, they held them straighter as their commander appeared. He gestured toward the fallen Jaffa, a question in his eyes.

"He's dead, sir," the soldier nearest Vala told him.

"No! Wait! You can't know that!" Vala protested, but the soldiers ignored her words. Instead, they prodded her with their staffs, herding her back between Daniel and Tomin.

Daniel rose to his feet, a bit wobbly and bleeding from both a cut on his cheek and a split lip.

"Are you all right?" Vala asked him quietly.

He nodded, never taking his eyes from Teal'c who lay so still. He could see the cauterized wound on his back and was thankful it wasn't bleeding. He sent a silent prayer to whoever might be listening that his friend was still alive and would be beamed aboard the Odyssey before it was too late. A soldier prodded at him with his staff, but Daniel didn't move. The soldier pushed him again, harder this time, almost knocking him back to the ground until he relented. Resisting now wouldn't help Teal'c.

With one last glance across his shoulder, Daniel saw Teal'c lying there, unmoving. He had no choice but to allow himself to be marched away with the others. Knowing from experience what could lay ahead, Daniel tried to ignore the growing dread he felt as he listened to the ominous silence of their Ori captors.

As they approached the Ori shuttle, Vala slowed her pace, trying to delay the inevitable. The soldier behind her pushed her, and she stumbled, falling to the ground. Daniel bent down to help her up and glared at the soldier in question.

"She's done nothing to merit this treatment," Tomin told the commander. "Let her go. It's the two of us you want."

"He's right," Daniel added. "She's worthless to you. She knows nothing about this."

"Do you take me for a fool, Tomin?" The commander sneered at him. "You betrayed your gods. You consort with these unbelievers and dare to think I do not recognize the mother of the Orici when I see her?"

"The Ori aren't gods!" Vala pulled away from Daniel and turned on the commander, looking him defiantly in the eyes. "They are only ascended beings, and they've been fooling you all this time. Have you checked the fires lately? It must be dark in Celestis these days."

The commander didn't speak, but raised his hand. Vala flinched away from the backhand that never landed. Daniel pushed himself forward, placing himself between Vala and the commander.

Two soldiers grabbed Daniels arms and wrestled him to the ground as he struggled to get loose. He was angry; Teal'c was dead. No. Not dead. Couldn't be. He refused to accept it. No, he refused to believe it. After all they'd been through, it couldn't end like this. As he continued to struggle, he knew what he had just done was stupid. Jack had always told him not to show emotions towards his teammates, not to give the enemy any information they could use against him. But he'd never been able to keep his concern for his friends hidden, and with Vala it was even harder.

The soldiers pressed his head into the ground, filling his mouth and nose with dirt. He shook his head, coughed and sputtered, and fought to escape the hands that held him. In the back of his mind, he hoped that Vala would take the chance to escape while the guards focused on him. He almost had one hand free when he felt the back of his shirt being lifted and a tugging at the waistband of his pants.

He tried to cry out a protest, but never got the chance. His world exploded in pain, centered at the small of his back, as the soldiers pressed a device against the base his spine. With every nerve ending on fire, Daniel couldn't hold back the screams.

"Stop it! STOP IT!" Vala shouted, fighting against the soldiers that had grabbed her arms to hold her back. She watched as Daniel's back arched at an unnatural angle, his head lifting up and straining the muscles in his neck as he screamed. But they didn't stop and Vala could only stare at Daniel. Any thoughts of escape she had fled because she knew that if she ran now, she'd be abandoning her best friend. If there was one thing she learned since joining the SGC, it was that no one got left behind.

The soldiers didn't stop until the sounds Daniel made were little more than agonized whimpers, and they let him drop face-first to the ground. The soldiers bent down, grabbed Daniel by his arms, and dragged him toward the waiting shuttle and into an inner room with no other exits but the one door. Once inside, they dumped him unceremoniously in the middle of the room and shoved Vala and Tomin through the door after him. Vala shot a glare at the soldiers as they left, closing the door behind them. She took a moment to check if there was an inner control panel before she knelt at Daniel's side. She rested her hand lightly on his shoulder and nudged him slightly, calling out his name but got no response.

"What was that thing, Tomin?" she asked as she checked Daniel's pulse. It was there - fast, but beating - and then she pulled his shirt up to check his back. The skin was reddened and raised in a perfect circle, but Vala could see no other damage.

"It's a device we use on unbelievers, it's mainly used to incapacitate quickly" he told her calmly as he knelt opposite her. Together they rolled Daniel onto his side, and Vala brushed the loose dirt away from his face. "He should awaken soon," Tomin continued. "It's meant to cause pain, though I have never seen it applied like that," he said, gesturing towards Daniel's back.

"That's all the Ori seem to be good for," she muttered angrily. "Hurting and killing anyone that stands in their way." She settled herself to the floor and pulled Daniel toward her, gently placing his head in her lap.

Tomin sat quietly, not disagreeing with her.

Vala pulled a small first aid kit from inside one of her pockets and began to dab at the cuts on Daniel's cheek and lower lip, cleaning him up as much as she could. She tapped his chin lightly, calling his name when he moaned.

"Daniel? Daniel, are you awake? Come on, Daniel, join us in our little party, won't you?" she said softly, peering down into his face. She tapped his chin again. Daniel responded with an uncoordinated attempt to bat her hand away.

He muttered something unintelligible.

"What?" Vala leaned forward until her ear was right next to his lips, though she still tapped at his chin. "Oh!" she said suddenly. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to hurt you." She straightened back up and pulled her hand away.

"Are you going to open your eyes?" she asked softly.

"Thinking about it," Daniel mumbled as he mentally took stock of his body. Everything tingled in a not-so-good way and it hurt. Whatever they had done to him had definitely left an impression. Vala had started lightly running her hand through his hair, and he really wished she'd stop doing that, but he didn't have the energy to tell her that even his hair hurt.

He tried to shift himself to find a more comfortable position, anything to take away this pain, but he suddenly realized that he couldn't move. He opened his eyes and blinked a few times, clearing his sight. He offered Vala a tight smile and then looked down at his legs, expecting to see them bound. But no, his legs stretched out before him, completely free. He tried moving them again, but nothing happened except that he gracelessly flopped onto his back.

Nothing but pain.

He couldn't help the panic that welled up inside him and he began to breathe heavily, hyperventilating.

"Daniel? Daniel, what's wrong? What's the matter?"

"Oh God, oh God," he kept saying even as he tried to sit up. He couldn't even manage that, only a feeble flailing of his arms to either side of him.

"Daniel? Daniel!" Vala placed her hand against his cheek and forced him to look at her. "Breathe, Daniel. Tell me what's wrong."

He couldn't meet her gaze, couldn't help reacting the way he did, couldn't help the tears that formed in his eyes. "I can't move my legs," he whispered to her.

"Daniel, the effects should only be temporary. The device wasn't meant to cause permanent damage," Tomin tried to reassure him.

"Did you hear that Daniel? You're going to be fine, ok? I promise," Vala sniffled, unable to help the tears forming in her own eyes. Daniel looked up at her and then quickly away, hiding a grimace of pain as he nodded.

They all felt the shudder as the ship landed and soon after armed guards entered the room. Holding their weapons aimed at the prisoners, they gestured for them to stand. Tomin stood quickly, hands partially raised as he took a step back while Vala remained with Daniel.

"Get up," one of the guards ordered Daniel.

"He can't move," she snapped at him. "Your soldiers hurt him too badly."

"Fine, then YOU get up." The guard reached down and grabbed Vala by the hair, forcing her to her feet. She tried to fight against him but stopped when she heard Daniel grunting in pain as two other guards roughly pulled him up from the floor.

"Wait, where are you taking him?" Vala shouted as the guards marched out of the room, pushing Vala and Tomin ahead of them in one direction and dragging a now barely conscious Daniel in another. "He needs help!" Vala cried out, struggling against the guards that held her. "Let me stay with him! Please!!"

The guards were as indifferent to Vala's struggles as they were to any more damage they could have been inflicting on the unconscious Daniel as they dragged him away. She turned and saw them take Tomin down another corridor. She stumbled as she was pulled away, but straightened and walked, head held high towards their destination; an empty cell.

Vala couldn't help but jump at the sound of the bars clanging shut. She waited to see if the guards would leave, but they merely stood guard over her. She sighed and ran her hands up and down her arms, trying to warm the chill that had settled in her bones, trying not to think of what was happening to her teammates and silently prayed to whatever God was listening for rescue.

The guards dragged Daniel into an empty cell and threw him on the ground. He had no breath to scream as he landed on his injured back and tried to roll onto his side. He almost managed it, but his legs wouldn't cooperate and he couldn't get any leverage using just his hips. Gasping for breath, he tried again, only just able to twist himself in such a way that kept the small of his back from touching the stone floor beneath him. He could barely move his legs now, able to bend them at the knees but unable to do much more than that as the pain centered at the small of his back flared down to his legs. Panting for breath, his worry for Vala kept him from resting. He prayed that somehow Tomin would be able to talk himself and Vala free from this place. That he'd get another vision from Merlin telling him what to do, because right now he was all out of ideas. The door to his cell clanged open and Daniel turned his head to look.

"Oh God," Daniel whispered, as the Doci entered his cell.

"Your Gods cannot help you now, Daniel Jackson," the pasty faced man told him, as he stood looking down at Daniel.

"That's just a statement of general dissatisfaction," Daniel told him, thinking Jack would be proud of the quip even as his blood ran cold. He knew now there was no escaping this, no trying to convince anyone about the truth of the Ori. This was the Doci, the voice of the Ori, second only to Adria. For a fleeting moment, Daniel prayed that he would see a vision of Merlin, if only so he would know what to do next. But nothing happened and he was well and truly alone. Abandoned by those he thought would help and unable to help those who believed him in this mad quest, he'd failed them all. Thanks to him, Teal'c was dead; he could admit that to himself now. And God only knew what was happening with Sam and Mitchell but he was thankful they were not here. He shied away from thinking what would happen to Vala, only grateful that Adria was long gone, ascended and prayed that her attention was focused anywhere but here.

Despite the pain it caused him, he turned his back on the Doci and didn't bother to fight back the tears that came to his eyes. The Doci began to chant his prayer and Daniel could feel the tendrils of his power reaching deep into his mind, rifling through his memories, lingering on the ones that caused him the most pain. He no longer had the strength to resist; his body had failed him, and now so did his mind. Accepting that there was nothing more he could do, Daniel closed his eyes and gave up hope.

-end missing scene


End file.
